Hey, Folks!
Welcome back to the weekly EDitorial after a week away. I really need more hours in the week to get things done, but I’m not quite used to the new post-apocalyptic status quo. I mean, for years…YEARS…I had a streamlined and easy to follow schedule with keeping up on orders. Because I am the only one to use a computer here at the store I have had to pioneer whole news ways of tabulating and keeping track of special orders, creating accurate shipping lists, and making it as easy as possible for you, my beloved customers, to get the comics you want into your hands. The last several months, however, have created a blasted landscape fraught with pot holes, flaming garbage, and other obstacles. I’m in the process of getting by act together, but it is frustrating that such homegrown innovations take so long to figure out and implement.
For example, a handful of you turn in the monthly Previews consumer order form. For those not in the know, Diamond generates a stripped down order form that is meant to be used in conjunction with the larger Previews catalog. It’s somewhat convenient for me as I can easily go month to month and use the form in order to pull any books that are ordered right from the rack. Post-apocalypse, however, it has turned into a headache of trying to keep track of 4 months worth of Previews guides. So I apologize to all of you who practice due diligence with your monthly orders only to have me inadvertently miss things. I promise that I have a “quick” fix in mind that should take care of such stupid mistakes in the future.
Additionally, with D.C. Comics pulling out of Diamond, I have the problem of how to solicit and keep track of preorders of D.C. product. When it was all in the same catalog it was really quite a snap, but now that it is NOT in the same catalog and, indeed, there isn’t a printable catalog at all I’ve been at a loss as to how to proceed. Rest assured I’m working on solutions to that as well. In fact, if I get half a moment tomorrow afternoon then I’m hoping to come up with at least a temporary solution.
Monarch Comics is trying something a little new this week. You see, I love going to the movies. I always have and I always will. There’s just something magical about sitting in a darkened theater with a bunch of strangers and having a group experience watching a story unfold. Obviously, I hadn’t been to a theater in many months because of the whole Covid thing and I was chomping at the bit to get at least a shadow of that experience again. So when it was announced that Cinemark was reopening its doors again and “Tenet”, the new Christopher Nolan film, was going to be one of the first new releases to hit the Silver Screen, I was cautiously excited at the prospect. I love Nolan’s films, even when I don’t entirely “get” them from a first or even second viewing. So I looked into how Cinemark was going to handle its reopening…you know, what kind of mask policy and social distancing policies were going into effect…and decided to give it a whirl. Hillman and I went to see “Tenet” on Monday evening and I was impressed with the set up and how they were trying to handle things in a post-apocalyptic landscape.
Well, while I was perusing the Cinemark website, I noticed that they had a listing for “Private Viewing Parties”. I know that it has always been possible to reserve a screening of a film, but whenever I looked into it in the past it always seemed a little too pricey to really bother. Out of curiosity I clicked on the link and discovered that in this new movie going era they had priced these private events MUCH more affordably. For $175 you can reserve a new release showing for 20 people! You also get discounted concession stand prices as well. It breaks down to $8.75 per person and I got the bright idea of sponsoring a private showing for Monarch Comics customers! I reasoned that with only 20 people on the guest list and a whole theater to ourselves we could easily practice social distancing, especially since the Cinemark policy is for wearing masks during your time in the building except when you are eating and/or drinking. I made a snap decision and decided to give it a try.
Since New Mutants is the big comic book movie and one of the first new release offerings I chose it and reserved the 9:30pm showing at Fallen Timbers this Saturday. For this initial promotion, I invited 18 of you to pay $5 in order to join a fun-loving comic book crowd for the film. I was surprised at how quickly the tickets were snapped up and I am genuinely excited that I will have the chance to see it with some of my favorite people. Depending on how well it goes and if Cinemark continues with the discounted pricing, I am considering offering similar sponsored showing of Wonder Woman 1984, Black Widow, and the new Bond flick. If I continue this program then I will most likely ask everyone who participates to chip in the whole $8.75 for the tickets to cover the costs, but even that is discounted off the regular Cinemark prices AND you get to experience your comic book movies with your fellow fans. If you happen to be in the store and you are interested in future events like this then please let me know. Who knows? If this turns out to be a hit then maybe Monarch Comics can sponsor multiple showings of popular comic book movies in the future!
Getting back to the State of the Industry a bit more, I’d like to mention that whatever “logjam” that was delaying shipments of reorders and supplies has apparently loosened up a bit. The reorders I put into Diamond’s system have started showing up a bit quicker and I think I’ve finally figured out how to get UCS reorders back in quicker and with less shipping costs. Additionally, the comic book supplies that we have only been able to stock sporadically have also begun being available with the old regularity. I was freaking out for a minute because things were getting more and more difficult to get back in stock, but I settled down after talking to a few of you in the store about it. It made me realize that ALL businesses were laboring under similar problems, not just the comic industry. I guess in hindsight it should have been self-evident, but I was a panicked bear and it was driving me crazy that I was having so much trouble restocking books and supplies. Here’s hoping that things remain relatively available and that the upcoming holiday season doesn’t really back everything up.
Okily dokily…that’s it for me this week! As I mentioned above, I’ve got a laundry list of projects to get done this week and very little time to get to them. OH! While I’m thinking about it, I will be out of the office the weekend of September 18-20 in order to get in some much needed vacation time with Hill before the end of the season. I’ll talk more about it next week.
Have a great weekend!
Eddie